


Aegis' Hatred

by orphan_account



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-01-20
Packaged: 2017-11-26 06:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/647458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy joins a band and guess what it's called: Aegis' Hatred. Join them as they travel the country, trying to hit it big, all the while dealing with monsters, agents, groupies, and ex-girlfriends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Percy, are you ready or not?" demanded an impatient Nico. I rolled my eyes at him, a feat I barely had time to accomplish before Thalia pinned me down, pulling an eyeliner pencil out of her back pocket. She ripped the cap off with her teeth before drawing on my eyelids for a moment. You may have one question: why the hell is Thalia putting eyeliner on me and soon-to-be Nico? Simple, we didn't want to learn to do it ourselves. Well, that and we're in a band.

Yep, a band. We're called "Aegis Hatred" after our Greek roots (since the entire band is comprised out of demigods). We're a 'emo-pop' band, though absolutely none of our music could be considered emo. We were just placed in that genre because of the way we dress, our name, and the makeup required under the hot stage lights. Yes, the eyeliner is obvious when you get a good look at us, but it doesn't make us emo.

Jordan snickered, throwing on his shirt and tugging a fedora on. Jordan can totally rock the fedora, especially onstage. Once I was free, I put drumsticks in my back pocket as Nico allowed himself to be held down as I was. Once he was standing, you could see that the olive-green hue of his eyes was accentuated by the black eyeliner and gave him a 'doe eyes' appearance. Yes, because that's the next thing Nico needs. Does eyes and he's a son of Hades.

Nico selected a guitar strap that was studded, not unlike his belt. Thalia grabbed the one that she'd hand painted a rose onto and hooked it onto her bass as Nico hooked his up to his beloved six string guitar, dubbed "Betty." Our manager and stage director, Tom suddenly burst into the room, a headset on one ear and a bluetooth headset on the other, clipboard in hand.

"Guys! What are you still doing here? The show starts, like, now!" he yelled. Ducking my head to hide a smile, I followed Jordan, our lead vocalist obediently out and onstage. I head the announcer on the PA system announce our band name and then introduce us individually: Jordan James on vocals, Nico di Angelo on lead/rhythmic guitar, Thalia Grace on a 5 string bass, and Perseus Jackson on the drums. We were given the go ahead to begin our song, and we did, opening with the song "We're not Alone."

_"We're not alone out here  
_ _Always together we will be  
_ _I will stand by if we're  
_ _Ever in trouble right now._

_Don't be scared of It  
_ _It comes to vanquish your fright  
_ _To help you adjust to your flight  
_ _The light in the everlasting darkness._

_We are the soldiers that stand at the ready  
_ _We defend with our final breath  
_ _We pick you up and carry you away  
_ _We travel the globe to help you in your own way._

_We're not alone out here  
_ _Always together we will be  
_ _I will stand by if we're  
_ _Ever in trouble right now._

_If you need us  
_ _Right here  
_ _Right now  
_ _Always and forever,_

_We're not alone…_

_No, never alone…_

_If you need a friend  
_ _An ally  
_ _A person to love_

_Don't be scared, we are here  
_ _We're not alone out here  
_ _Always together we will be  
_ _I will stand by if we're  
_ _Ever in trouble right now._

_We're not alone…_

_No, never alone…_

_We're not alone out here  
_ _Always together we will be  
_ _I will stand by if we're  
_ _Ever in trouble right now."_

Jordan chanted the lyrics to the song enchantingly, softly fading away. His voice created and aura of magic that could not be ignored. Even people who didn't know us or even the band name stopped and stared at the Talent Show Stage we sat on. The son of Apollo held everyone enraptured by the lyrics of our song, inspired by the Second Titan War. Thalia and Nico lightly strummed their instruments, going at them with the gentle caress of a lover, but the determination of a pitbull or a hellhound or maybe a hydra.

Jordan backed up, breathing hard and sweat was pouring down his body, even maybe even worse than me, which was an accomplishment, because the drum part was hard for this song (I had several solos). The crowd seemed too stunned by our performance to make a single sound. One person found their vocals and whooped, followed by an explosion of noise.  _Sweet Baby Zeus_ , I thought,  _I didn't know we could play that well_. The best we'd ever done couldn't compare to the performance we'd just put on. It made every other time we'd practiced and called it good sound like we'd completely butchered our own song.

Panting from exhaustion, the heat of the 95 degree summer day, and lack of water, we climbed off stage, only to be swarmed. People declared our song absolutely wonderful and claimed they would listen to every one of our tracks (now on iTunes). We thanked them, but elbowed our way through the crowd to the air conditioned pizzeria that we'd agreed to meet at. We walked into Foo-G's and Thalia, Nico, and Jordan went to quickly stake a booth, for the restaurant was packed. I ordered 2 medium pizza's and two 2 liters of Mountain Dew. We could clean that out easy, but it didn't mean that we had to completely wipe out the pizzeria of food. I got a discount, since I worked here, and was given 25 minutes to do whatever. I went to the booth my 3 band mates had staked out and slid in next to Jordan, for Thalia had sat next to Nico. We laughed and giggled and I had to agree to get everyone wristbands so we could ride some rides (we were at a festival) and then Thalia went to retrieve our food. She brought it back, but then we had to wait another 15 minutes until it had cooled down enough to eat without getting burned, a lesson well-learned by Nico and us by observation. He had a 3rd degree burn on his wrist from a freaking  _pizza_.

Once it was cool enough to eat, we did, practially inhaling it. What can I say? We're human vacuums when it comes to food. We're teenagers who are forced to live the healthiest lifestyle possible for 3 months and all of us can easily eat a whole pizza by ourselves, maybe 1 ½. After finishing said pizza, we sat around giggling until Nico suddenly hissed "Shit, ex-girlfriend and one o' clock!"

We all turned in said-direction and saw none other than my very own ex-girlfriend, Annabeth Chase.


	2. Chapter 2

She hadn't seen us yet. She was with her new boyfriend, a mortal by the name of Marc Dennis. She was walking with a whole new group of friends, surrounded by superficial bitches and a bunch of jocks. She even acted like one of them, irritably flipping her blonde hair over her shoulders when someone touched her and constantly leaning up against Marc, acting like he was a crutch and she needed him to support her. She gave a loud, fake laugh at a joke that was probably butchered all to hell when Thalia yelled "Hey Annabeth!"

My ex zeroed in on us, her grey eyes narrowing on us four. She smiled at Thalia (She could never, ever bring herself to hate Thalia), glanced at Nico and Jordan, then her gaze landed on me. She stared at me for a moment, as if deciding how to react to seeing me, and then just decided to curl her lip up at me and glare at me before turning back to her new group. They were all curious about who we were and how she knew us, but their indistinct chatter was interrupted when one of them suddenly yelled, "OMFG, you guys are Aegis' Hatred, aren't you? I saw your guys' song; it was ah-maz-ing. I'm going to download it onto my iPod as soon as I get home!"

"Haylie, what are you talking about?" Annabeth demanded, clearly not liking being out of the loop. "Who is Aegis' Hatred?

"OMG, you don't know?" gushed the one named Haylie. "They're the band that played at the Talent Show today! You know, the one with the song " _We're not Alone_ "? They play at our school sometimes for fundraisers. They are completely ah-maz-ing!" She finished with a matter-of-a-fact tone and Annabeth narrowed her eyes at the girl.

"Aegis' Hatred?" she whispered, her voice frosty. "That's a strange name."

"We named it after our roots Annabeth. You should know plenty about that." Thalia replied sweetly. Although she and Annabeth would never, ever end up being mortal enemies and could never get mad at each other for more that 20 minutes, Thalia disliked how Annabeth had treated me when we'd broken up and as a result, still had a bit of an attitude whenever they talked.

"Dude, great show today. You guys have got to be the ones who win." Said Marc. I smiled. As much as I wanted to be mad at him for having the love of my life on his arm (and he wanted to hate me for having Annabeth as a girlfriend first), he was a decent guy and I liked him.

"Thanks. I hope we win too, but there was a tap dancing four year old in a red tutu going on after us. No matter how many sexy beasts we eat for breakfast, we ain't got nothing on a tap dancing four year old in a red tutu." Jordan replied.

"Well, we all know Nico had a bowl of sexy beasts for breakfast, so that's gotta count for something." I reasoned and we all burst out laughing. Annabeth smiled, despite herself, remembering that day about two months before we'd broken up and Jason, Thalia, Tom, Leon, and I had all 'accidentally' gotten high and run around the camp for about and hour and a half hyper beyond belief and higher than a kite before we decided to go sky diving. That ended up being the reason Thalia had gotten kicked out of the Hunter's ranks and was now our bassist.

"Dude, if I ate a bowl of sexy beasts for breakfast today, then we're definitely going to win." Nico replied with macho confidence and we only laughed harder. Annabeth's group sat next to us, much to her dislike. We chatted for a few and then they moved (at Annabeth's insistence) to a few more booths on the opposite side of the restaurant.

"I wanna sing Allstar Weekend, just to piss her off." Nico murmured, naming Annabeth's least favorite band and one of my favorites. I smiled and Thalia snorted, just as Jordan broke into a song.

" _Every Clock is ticking faster_ _  
_ _Taking trips around the sun_ _  
_ _Another year, another chapter_ _  
_ _5 and 4 and 3 and 2 and 1_

_Drop your calls, lose your keys  
_ _Before the drinks are gone_

_Get yourself out your seat_ _  
_ _oh oh_ _  
_ _Quit your bitching move your feet_ _  
_ _Until the break of dawn_ _  
_ _Cause nobody gives a damn about the day that you were born_

_This song is for everyone who it ain't your birthday  
_ _You gotta party like it's not, party like it's not_

_This song's for anyone who is having the worst day_ _  
_ _You gotta party like it's not, party like it's not_

_oh o oh  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not_

_Like it's not your birthday_ _  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not_ _  
_ _oh o oh_ _  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not_ _  
_ _Like it's not your birthday_ _  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not_ _  
_ _oh o oh_

_Take a sip of the high life  
_ _Chase it down until you fall  
_ _Three hundred sixty five nights  
_ _Why just one if we can have them all_

_Drop your calls, lose your keys  
_ _Before the drinks are gone  
_ _Get yourself out your seat  
_ _oh oh  
_ _Clap your hands, move your feet  
_ _Until the break of dawn  
_ _Cause nobody gives a damn about the day that you were born_

_This song is for everyone who it ain't your birthday  
_ _You gotta party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _This song's for anyone who is having the worst day  
_ _You gotta party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _oh o oh_

_Party like it's not, Party like it's not,  
_ _Like it's not your birthday  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _oh o oh  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not,  
_ _Like it's not your birthday  
_ _Party like it's not. party like it's not  
_ _oh o oh_

_Ok lets lose control  
_ _I wanna see everybody on the floor  
_ _Well go and send your invitations  
_ _Do it now 'cause time is wasting  
_ _Life is tough so fill them cups  
_ _One life to live, so live it up  
_ _Drinks go up, drink em' down  
_ _Turn it up, wake up the town_

_Ok, Check it out, here's the plan_ _  
_ _We gonna dance till we can not stand_ _  
_ _Move your feet to every beat_ _  
_ _O Crap, bring it back, put it on repeat_ _  
_ _We are going to party till the break of dawn_ _  
_ _I don't even know how i'm getting home_ _  
_ _It's alright it's ok_ _  
_ _It's not even my birthday!_

_Party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _Like it's not your birthday  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _oh o oh  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not_

_This song is for everyone who it ain't your birthday  
_ _You gotta party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _This song's for anyone who is having the worst day  
_ _You gotta party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _oh o oh  
_ _(Like it's not your birthday)  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _(Like it's not your birthday)  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _oh o oh  
_ _(Like it's not your birthday)  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _(Like it's not your birthday)  
_ _Party like it's not, party like it's not  
_ _oh o oh."_

We all joined in, laughing our asses off when Annabeth shot us a dirty look. She only got pissier when yet another kid in her group suddenly said "Dude, you listen to Allstar Weekend too?"

We burst out laughing as Annabeth scowled. She knew we'd sang that song to deliberately piss her off and I was delighted to say it was working. She glared at all of us this time, even Thalia, and then got up and stomped out of the pizzeria. We laughed even harder, unable to contain ourselves. Once Marc had found Annabeth and calmed her down and we'd had our fun, we got up to leave. I paid for the pizza's and just as we were walking out, Marc ran up and snagged my shoulder.

"Hey, I'm having a birthday party next weekend. Would you guys mind being the performing band?" he whispered.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, should we? Band effort you guys, some feedback might be nice." I demanded, getting irritated beyond belief with the three teenagers that were sitting in my front room, reclined on my furniture. Thalia glanced uneasily at the two boys, who shared a similar look.

"What?" I demanded. I was like Annabeth sometimes-I hated being out of the loop.

"Well, it's Marc's birthday. Annabeth will be there. Do you honestly want to spent all of next Saturday being tortured by your ex?" Jordan asked timidly.

"This isn't about a tiny petty argument that Annabeth can't let go of. This is about getting an actual gig and finding an actual set list and actually playing and not just in a Talent Show!" I exploded. "I have his number right here. Now, give me a definite answer: yes or no?"

Thalia shrugged uncomfortably. "Well, you saw how she reacted today. Do you want to put up with over 12 hours of that? I mean, come on. I know your not masochistic, but this is just a sick way to torture yourself."

I glared at her and she fell silent, glancing in the opposite direction. "Okay, let's take Annabeth out of the equation. If she weren't a problem, would you be interested in this offer?"

"Well, yeah. It's a gig. At this point in time, we've gotta take what we can." Nico said awkwardly. Clearly, he couldn't picture this going down without me and Annbeth having a knock-down-drag-out fight.

"Thalia?" I asked.

"Yeah. Marc's a decent guy and we listen to similar genre's, so a set list wouldn't be that hard. He also promised to listen to our songs on iTunes so he can pick his favorites." She replied.

"Jordan?"

"Same." He murmured. I sighed.

"Alright. I'm going to go call Marc." I told them all, picking up my home phone and dialing his number.

"Why?" Jordan asked.

"So I can tell him we accept." I replied without looking at them. I could already feel the looks of ' _oh shit_ ' they were exchanging.

* * *

"Hey, glad you could make it." Marc said, opening the door. "You guys can set up back here. The party starts in an hour."

"Kay." Jordan said and we all turned to go unload our equipment. He was one of the few decent kids I knew who had a house big enough to have a back yard and a pool (what can I say, I'm from a poor neighborhood), so we didn't have to lug all of our crap through his house. We were set up about 15 feet from the edge of his pool (which was set in the ground) and were doing system checks when Marc asked to have a word with me. I got up and followed him inside his house.

"Hey." I said. "What's up?"

"Hey." He said, uncomfortable. "I know this might be weird, but since it's my party and all and Annabeth's coming"-

"Say no more." I replied, holding up my hand. "My band and I had this discussion before we even called you. I promise I'll behave myself if she does. I don't want to ruin this day for anybody."

He looked immensely relieved. "Thanks man. That means a ton to me." I shrugged good naturedly and went back outside to assist Nico in lifting an amp (the kid had no upper body strength whatsoever). I had told the truth: I liked Marc. He was a decent guy, which were hard to come by. I didn't want to ruin this day for him. I mean, come on. Nobody likes having their birthday crashed by an ex-boyfriend. But I had also meant it when I said I'd behave if she did. If Annabeth started shit because my band was playing at her boyfriend's party, I'd finish it. And nobody wanted to see the predicted knock-down-drag-out fight.

So we were just finishing setting up when all of the guests arrived. I was slightly disappointed-we hadn't even tuned up yet. Now they all got to hear us play crappy chords and bitter disappointments to the name of music. I shrugged it off; Jordan had it worse. He was our lead vocalist. Although he could play almost all of the instruments, his only current one was his voice. He had to do singing warm-ups that everybody and their brother would get to hear.

Guess who the first guest to arrive was?

It wasn't Annabeth. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I gotcha. No, knowing Annabeth the way I did (which was fairly well, if I do say so myself), she would be among the last to arrive because she'd turned into one of the chicks that takes forever and eternity to get ready. I missed the old Annabeth, the one who was comfortable wearing jeans and an old shirt to a red-carpet event. She didn't curl her hair a thousand times to make sure it was pretty or cake her face in makeup-she threw her hair in a ponytail and called it good. Nope, not anymore. Not since we broke up.

Everyone was ecstatic that Marc had gotten Aegis' Hatred to play at his birthday. They'd absolutely loved our performance earlier that week at the festival and were proud to announce that they'd gone and bought all of our songs on iTunes. I was pretty happy too- that meant we were getting popular and the more popular we were, the more attention we got. Jordan, Thalia, and Nico weren't too bad themselves.

And then we had the dreaded encounter-Annabeth showed up.

As predicted, she wore so much makeup, you could have an archeological dig on her face and probably come up with T-Rex bones. She had straightened her hair from its usual curl to straight sheer layers. She wore a pair of short shorts and a tank top with a bikini underneath. Her eyes landed on me and I swore time stood still. Annabeth's eyes narrowed on me like they had in the restaurant and instead of starting crap, I smiled and turned away, a hard knot in my stomach.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked. So much for 'no confrontation'.

"Marc asked us to be the performing band at his party and we accepted." I clarified, if not a tad defensively.

"We?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes Annabeth,  _we_. It was a band decision that had to be made because we all knew you were going to be here. A group decision means that the word 'we' is usually included in the sentence, is that correct?" Nico snapped. And he'd been worried about  _me_  being an ass. He could do that all by himself. I sent him a warning glare. Annabeth opened her mouth to spit something venomous at Nico, but Thalia beat her to the punch. I've never heard Thalia take a tone like the one she did with Annabeth, but it warmed my heart to know that she could.

"Don't you dare say anything to him; I'll knock your teeth out and you'll be picking teeth out of your ass for a week." She snarled, defending our small guitarist.

"GUYS!" I snapped. What happened to playing it cool? "We still have to tune up. Now, if you're done acting like immature brats, can you go your separate ways and spend a decent afternoon doing whatever?"

Thalia glared at Annabeth. She didn't move until I threatened tie the two of them together and that was when she finally found motivation to help us tune. We finished tuning and I dragged my three band mates to our car out front and away from the bustle of activity.

"Okay, you guys, seriously. Drop the fucking attitudes. You were worried about me being a dick, and yet I have to keep you guys in line? What the hell?" I demanded. They all looked down sheepishly.

"Sorry man. I saw her and something inside me snapped. I just wanted to rip her head off." Nico apologized, gazing at the ground, ashamed.

"So do I but that doesn't mean I act on it! Gods damn Nico, you need to learn some self control. You do realize that there are 5 demigods in one place, 3 of them Big Three kids, right? That means that almost every monster in New York City will be zeroing in on this place. We need her on our side if it comes to a fight. Keep her in a good mood." I pleaded. I turned to Thalia and Jordan. "What's your excuse?"

"She was going to diss on my baby cousin. Nobody just disses on my cousin and gets away with it." Thalia mumbled and I saw her sneak a glance sideways. The light in her eyes made it look like she was dancing on cloud nine even though she was being bitched at. She looked like (at the risk of using a Twilight quote) a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. I saw who she was sneaking a glance at and almost swore. She was looking at Nico.

"Kay, now that's about a fucking lie. You two couldn't be more obvious." I replied and they both blushed bright red. I faced Jordan expectantly. "Well? You in love with your invisible best friend too?"

Jordan's eyes widened. "How in the hell did you find out about Maxine?" We all stared at him and he snickered. "JK you guys. No, I just don't like Annabeth's attitude about the band. She seemed seriously pissed that none of us had deemed to tell her about a band that she didn't deserve to know about. Besides, you joined after breaking up with her. She wasn't entitled to the vital statistics of your social life anymore and she seemed upset about that."

"I agree." Nico piped up and I silenced him with another glare.

"One question." Said a voice off to the side. We looked up and saw Annabeth. "Who's Maxine?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Uhhhh…"I trailed off like an idiot, glancing at my band members and hoped they'd save me. No such luck. "Jordan's invisible girlfriend he keeps locked in his closet."

Annabeth gave Jordan a strange look. He blushed, but he didn't deny it. She glanced at all of us as if we were complete strangers and she didn't know us anymore. We could say the same about her.

"You wanted?" Thalia asked, struggling for a polite tone.

"Marc said to tell you to meet him in the kitchen." She replied, still looking at all of us weird. "He said he had your guy's set list with him and he wanted to go over it. He asked me to get you." With that, she turned on her heel and left.

"How much do you think she heard?" Nico asked in an undertone. I shot him a 'look'.

"Enough to think we're all on crack." I replied. "I'd say she came in right when I was interrogating Jordan."

"Nice word choice: interrogating." He snickered. I shot him a dirty look (something I seemed to be doing a lot) and stomped off to go meet Marc, the rest of them scrambling to catch up. We ran into him in the kitchen, where Annabeth had told us he'd be. He saw us and relief filled his face.

"What?" I challenged. "Didn't think there would be anything left of us after a talk with Annabeth?"

"Truthfully? No." he admitted. "But all the same, I'm glad there is because I want to go over the set list with you. I picked out all my favorites of your songs and arranged them how I wanted them played, if that isn't too much to ask."

"Nope." I replied, smiling swiftly. "That's fine. What's first?" I took the set list from him and my stomach dropped. His first choice was an acoustic duet between a male and a female. "Ghost."

And he'd requested that the duo singing be me and Thalia.

_Ah, hell._

* * *

" Alright guys, Marc has requested that the music today start with a duet, singing the song "Ghost", written and organized by Percy Jackson and Thalia Grace. He's also requested that he and Thalia be the ones to sing the song since they composed it. So, here they are." Jordan introduced us, using the mic and Thalia and I stepped forward. I adjusted my grip on the six-string acoustic that Nico was lending me for this song. I really didn't want to sing this one; it was the first song I'd composed after breaking up with Annabeth and now I was singing it with her best friend. Whom she'd accused me of cheating on her with and was the reason we broke up. Oh boy, this was so not a good idea…

" _Am I dead inside; why can't you see me?  
_ _Am I disappearing; it's getting cold  
_ _If I'm dead, why is it that I feel?  
_ _Am I even real?  
_ _Cuz I don't know..._

_Is it wrong, that I want more than just life?  
_ _To really life would be nice, I could only guess  
_ _Everybody looks, but they don't see me  
_ _Am I a human being…?  
_ _Or something less…"_

Thalia chanted the lyrics to the first two stanzas in the most haunting voice I'd ever heard. She sounded more ghost-like than I'd ever heard; then again, this song had a pretty deep meaning for her too. There was a pause where I did a mini acoustic guitar solo that sounded awfully close to a Spanish guitar solo, and she glanced at me as she prepared for the duet part. Mentally, I had to gear myself up as well to bring myself to sing the words.

" _I'm not here, but you may talk down to me  
_ _So drive your stake right through me, but I won't die  
_ _Cuz I'm a ghost, and I'll haunt you forever  
_ _And I'll never…let you see me cry!_

_So look at me and wonder if I'm real  
_ _Hell yes I feel; but mostly hate…  
_ _I will not reside in a cemetery and if I'm scary  
_ _Well you're too late…_

_I won't accept any of your pity; I still have my dignity  
_ _And I don't need you.  
_ _So growing on the outside, I'll snap back at you  
_ _Nothing else to do; and cause I want to!"_

Cue another short guitar solo like the first and Thalia faded out, for the next solo was mine and I could feel the gaze of one particular girl drilling into me as I softly sang the last few lyrics.

" _And I can't top that, I am still lonely  
_ _Like the Phantom's Christine, abandoning  
_ _I'll act like I don't care but I am lying  
_ _To myself and crying myself to sleep."_

Thalia joined me for one last duet together, our voices mixing into a melody.

" _Am I dead inside; why can't you see me?  
_ _Am I disappearing; it's getting cold  
_ _If I'm dead, why is it that I feel?  
_ _Am I even real?  
_ _Cuz I don't know…"_

The song received applause galore, any musician's dream, to hear his work applauded. But not for me, not now, not with this song, and definitely not with the girl who was watching me as if trying to decide how to dismantle me. It held too much meaning and the tension between us was so thick you could cut it with Riptide. Thalia too was a little embarrassed and she awkwardly slipped into her bass strap, welcoming its familiar touch and I could tell we both relished stepping away from the mic. Nico couldn't have been too happy that I'd sang that particular song with his girlfriend either.

Jordan and Nico silently took their places and we played through the set without pause, singing all of our hit favorites. Although she did wander from room to room and never strayed far from Marc, I could feel Annabeth's gazing burning into me as I played my drumset with a quiet determination. After we finished our set, we were paid by Marc, and we quickly packed up and were out of there in record time.

"Did you"-Thalia didn't even have to finish the question.

"I did." I confirmed quietly. Whether any of us liked it or not, I knew Annabeth had sensed the deeper meaning to that song and I had the sinking feeling that we would be receiving a visit from that Daughter of Athena very soon.


	5. Chapter 5

I don't know about you, but I am not going to an address that Annabeth knows." Nico said. "She's gonna grill you and then barbeque you."

"Ditto man, don't go home. Go someplace else." Agreed Jordan.

"And what the hell are we gonna do with all of our equiptment?" I demanded.

"The loft." Thalia suddenly suggested. They all murmured in agreement so I just muttered "Fine, fine, the loft it is." and turned to go to the loft. The continued to talk quietly about the tension at the party and I began to feel my muscles knotting.

"I need to listen to something calming, put on something classical." I stressed, gripping the steering wheel with a white-knuckling force. Thalia, who'd stolen shotgun from Nico, nodded and picked up my iPod, which was attached by a cord to our radio. A few moments later, the London Symphony Orchestra filled the car and I hummed along to "For the Love of a Princess" from the soundtrack of  _Braveheart_. I took a deep breath and allowed the cello music to melt me slowly; draining away all the tension I was holding. I loved classical pieces for exactly this reason. After a harsh run-in with Annabeth or just anything stressful in general, the London Symphony Orchestra was always there for me. By the time we got to our loft, where we stored all of our instruments, I was as light as a hummingbird and floating on cloud nine. I'd been told I looked like a stoner when I listened to James Horner music and didn't doubt it. I even felt like I was stoned when I listened to it. It just slowed down everything and put my ADHD on pause. It did for all of us, so when we listened to it, our brains weren't racing a million miles an hour with demigod worries on top of band worries on top of high school worries on top of just being a teenager worries. Annabeth had mentioned to me once when we were dating that it was strange to see me play video games because I listened to the London Symphony Orchestra while playing a war game. In her opinion, it was like  _Braveheart_  meets  _Call of Duty_  meets  _Black Ops_.

While we all calmed down in the loft, just sitting around and listening to the wonderful song "Battle of Sterling", the phone rang. We turned the music down and I picked it up, since I was closest. It was my mom.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Percy, where are you?" my mom asked. Her voice sounded strangled.

"At the loft, why?" I asked, my alert level cranking up from green to yellow. "What's wrong?" Everyone else shifted their weight forward, hearing the tone in my voice.

"Oh, nothing. Annabeth's here and I told her I'd see if I could get a hold of you for her. Do you want to speak with her?"

"Don't do it mom. Please, don't do it. Don't give into peer pressure." I begged, but to no avail. I heard my mom in the background say to Annabeth "Yep, here he is hon. He said he'd talk to you."

"Percy?" Annabeth's voice felt foreign over the speaker of the phone. "Where are you? I need to talk to you."

"First," I interrupted her, "is this a matter of life and death?"

"No." She sounded confused.

"Is someone holding you hostage?"

"No."

"Are you drugged?"

"No, Percy, what the hell is with the questions?"

"I'm just trying to get a grip on the situation. As far as I can tell, you are not in mortal or fatal danger of any sort and don't need any help, so as far as I'm concerned, this conversation can wait until we accidentally bump into each other in public." I told her, and then hung up. I stared at the phone receiver for a minute, then said "Oh, that's gonna come back and bite me in the ass."

"Percy, does Annabeth have our phone number now?" Thalia asked slowly. I nodded and then the realization hit me.

"Pack everything you can in a bag. We'll call Tom and tell him to move everything to a new loft. It takes at least 20 minutes to get here from my house." I said hastily.

"Why?" Nico asked.

"Because Annabeth can find us, she has our phone number. With a number, you can find an address. Pack it up boys." Thalia replied. I was packed in record time and in the car. Jordan and Nico had already taken the trailer off of the car and Jordan was calling Tom while Nico helped Thalia finish packing. Fifteen minutes later, we were on the road and Tom was manipulating the Mist. When Annabeth got to our old loft, it would look old and abandoned, as if no one had stepped foot in there for almost 50 years. We had a new address and all of our stuff would already be there. What can I say? We had good connections to a man who liked helping out and air-traveling (Tom loves air-traveling).

"Percy?" Nico asked finally.

"What?"

"Do me a favor?" he asked.

"Depends on the favor kid."

"Do NOT give your mom our next number or address." He said.

"Done." I replied. I turned onto a new road and saw Tom waving us in from the driveway. The new loft wasn't any bigger than our last one and knowing Tom, he'd re-arranged the lay-out to be exactly like our last one. That wasn't for our benefit, it was for his. He was navigationally challenged and learning the layout of a new house/loft was a bit of a challenge for him. So we just said 'whatever' and let him make the layout how he wanted so he wouldn't get lost and walk in on us dressing or something.

"Hey guys." Tom said. "What's with the big rush to move? I could have gotten us a bigger place if you had just given me 24 hours notice instead of 5 minutes."

"Annabeth got our address from our mom and was heading over. We'd just gotten back from a party she was attending and we were performing at and we all wanted to chill without being hounded by her, so we went to the loft. Sadly, Percy's mom can't let go of Annabeth and wants them to date again, so she gave her our number and/or address." Jordan replied while we all climbed out.

"Ah. Marc's party. I always knew that was a bad idea." Tom said sagely.

"Wait, how'd you know whose it was?" I asked.

Tom rolled his eyes. "Percy, really? I'm a demi-/actual Titan. I'm all-knowing. I knew you guys would be going there, but don't consult the Titan or anything, you know, you just pay me to stand around and look nice, not give advice."

"Tom, we don't pay you. You wanted to be in the band and we made you our manager and you  _sometimes_  give advice." Thalia corrected tiredly. Every time we made a boneheaded move, Tom brought this up and it was getting a little old when we had to correct him.

Tom waved her off. "Psh. I give advice all the time and you will be paying me when you're famous."

"Tom we're not famous yet and when the hell are you giving advice all the time?" Nico said, exasperated.

"I said  _when_. You're forgetting I have an aptitude for small future predictions. Change my boy, change. That's why I'm the Lord of Change. I can sense current changes and also make them happen. And as for some advice, here's some right now: those shoes look horrible with that shirt."

Nico opened his mouth to say something, most likely something that would get his ass turned into a flower again, so I stopped him. "Guys, we're all a little stressed and probably hungry. Let's just go inside and get something to eat and chillax and talk stuff out, alright. And Tom, what have we told you about predicting the future?"

He pouted. "Not to because the mortals might hear."

"Exactly and what did you do?"

"Predicted the future."

"You are just on a roll today Thomas. Bravo." I replied, clapping my hands. "Now, everybody quit acting stuck up and 'holier than thou' and go sit on our asses and play Call of Duty 2, alright?"

This sounded agreeable to everyone and we all went inside.

**TWO HOURS LATER**

"Percy, the phone's ringing!" screamed Thalia over the gunfire and music we had blaring. We were listening to "Getting Away with Murder" by Papa Roach and were playing Mario Smash Bros. I reached over the back of the couch and picked up the phone.

"Percy, did you move lofts?" my mom asked.

"No. Tom made us a new one. Why?" I asked, trying like hell to get Jordan off of my lap and kick Nico's ass (we were playing one on one) all while talking to my mother.

"Just wondering because Annabeth and I are outside. Come out or I'm sending her in. She just wants to talk Percy." My mom threatened. I covered the receiver with my hand. "Tom?"

"Yeah?" he asked, his mouth full of food.

"Did you change our number?"

"No."

"Did you change our address?"

"Stayed with the phone number and automatically updates whenever we move." He replied. "Why do you ask?"

"What part of 'I don't want to see Annabeth and I don't want her to find me' didn't you understand? That meant change everything." I ground out. "They're here and outside."

Tom shrugged. "Sorry about your luck dude, but you know what your mom's like. I'd just go outside and get it over with. If you don't, your moms gonna keep hounding you and Annabeth will still want to have this conversation with you whenever you meet. Wouldn't you rather do this now than later?"

My eyes gave him my answer.

"Alright, I'll go outside and talk to them. I know that little scene at Marc's must have been awkward. But I'm not going to force them to leave and you might still have to talk to them." Tom said, getting up and handing his controller to Thalia. "Don't kill me."

She nodded and took it, then proceeded to kick Jordan's ass (who was still sitting on me). Irritated, I nodded and dumped Jordan on the floor, then was promptly killed by Nico because he'd taken advantage of me being distracted and had thrown me off the edge of the screen.

"You son of a bitch!" I screamed. "I wasn't paying attention, that shouldn't count!"

"That's why you should have paused it. You didn't call time out or pause it; it was a fair move." He replied smugly.

"Come on Nico, have a heart. With what might be waiting for him outside, cut him some slack." Thalia protested. "Jordan, back me up on this."

"Nah, I'm with Nico on this one. It counted." Jordan said.

"You're only agreeing with him because I beat you and Percy tossed you on the ground!" Thalia objected. "You're biased!"

"Hey," Jordan said. "If you didn't want my opinion, you shouldn't have asked for it."

"It didn't count!" Thalia and I insisted.

"Yeah, it did." Jordan and Nico pressed. Just then, Tom returned.

"Wow that was quick." I replied. "Verdict?"

Tom went to go reply, but Thalia cut him off. "Hold on, before you answer him, is it fair if Percy's distracted and Nico takes advantage of that to throw him off the edge?"

"Depends, did he call time out or pause it?" Tom asked.

"No, he didn't." Thalia admitted. "But I think these are special circumstances, with the two angry chicks outside and all."

"Not time out or pause, its fair game. Percy should know by now that almost everyone in this room will play dirty if they can." Tom admonished. "And as for the two angry chicks outside, they aren't that angry anymore. But they still insist on speaking with you outside. And they aren't going away. You aren't going to be able to leave this building without me air-traveling you home and A) I told them I wouldn't and B) they'll still follow you home and talk to you there. This is unavoidable Percy, just be a man and go down and talk to them already."

I sighed. "I blame you this."

"Just go." Nico said. "Good things can come from just manning up and doing it already." He shot a smile at Thalia and she smiled back at him, almost making me gag. If that was what Annabeth and I had looked like, gods shoot me now.

"Just go and resolve the problem. When it's out of the way, you'll actually be able to form a new relationship and you might be able to be friends again. This problem is going to tear us apart Percy and I don't want you to force me to pick between my two best friends. I can already tell you who I'd pick and you don't want to hear who it'd be." Thalia said. "Stop procrastinating."

"Procrastinate-Because if the world ends tomorrow, you don't have to do it." I replied. She just gave me a look, as did the rest of them. I sighed and stood up.

"Fuck all of you. I thought you were my friends." I spat.

"We are Percy. We're ganging up on you because you're being too stubborn and pigheaded to understand that this is the best course of action. I don't want you to ruin your chances at a second chance with Annabeth or even just a friendship with Annabeth." Jordan said gently. I just glared at him and stomped outside. My mom wasn't there anymore; just Annabeth sat there, leaning up against her car.

**(A.N.: Caution, this next scene gets a little emotional.)**

"I thought you weren't going to come out." She said the relief in her voice obvious.

"I wasn't going to but it's a little hard to stay inside when your four best friends are about to throw you to the sharks." I replied, the irony in that statement heavy. "Now what do you want?"

She flinched. "I just wanted to talk Percy. Every time I see you, it seems like I can't stop thinking about how much I must have hurt you, especially this last week."

"Oh, that's funny; I thought you loved making me feel bad!" I snapped sarcastically. "I mean, you only ripped my heart out and shredded it when you accused me of cheating on you-WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND! You only glare at me every time you see me, you've completely changed your personality, you hang out with people who are just flat-out retarded and you have problems having a civil conversation with me. Or did I miss something?"

"Percy, I was being a bitch, I know, but I want that to change!" she cried. "I want to be your friend again Seaweed Brain, can't you see that?"  
Now it was my turn to flinch when she used my old nickname. It'd been months since she'd talked to me, let alone used an endearing nickname for me. "Don't call me that Annabeth. You lost that right when you ripped my heart out and threw it on the ground." I said, my voice dangerously level.

"Percy, just listen to me. Can't we be friends?" she pleaded. "I don't care if you hate me, but the least you can do is make an effort for your friends."

"My friends are the only reason I'm out here Annabeth! I'm out here because I don't want to force Thalia to choose between you and me. I don't want Nico to be sad when you completely ignore him. I don't want to see Jordan's disappointed face when we argue. I don't want Tom to be upset that two of his favorite demigods in the world hate each other's guts. That's the ONLY reason I'm here Annabeth! Or else I would have just pulled out Riptide and cut the damned place into shreds myself."

"Perseus, you need to stop be do damn  _stupid_  and listen to me for  _once_  in your life! I know I hurt you; I know! But what's wrong with wanting that to change?" Annabeth looked like she was about to start crying, which made me do a double take, for Annabeth never cried, but it didn't slow me down. Nope, I was on a roll now.

"You know you hurt me? You don't know how badly you hurt me, do you?" I whispered, my voice shaking with fury. "I haven't been able to hold up a meaningful relationship for _months_  and you've already gone through 4 boyfriends. I'm lucky I'm not curled up in a ball on my bed, still crying my eyes out over you. Do you want to know what it felt like Annabeth? Do you? Because I can tell you." I hissed. Her eyes widened at how scary I'd suddenly become. "It felt like you reached up, through my ribcage, and then grabbed a hold of my heart. Once you had a good grip on it, you dug your nails into it and made it hurt worse. Then, you twisted it around, like it was some kind of sick game. You kept twisting it. Once it was good and twisted, you pulled. You yanked on it like you were pulling on a dog chain to get a dog to behave. After that, you stabbed me in it and pulled it out through my chest, leaving it bleeding on the ground. Then, just to rub salt in the wound, you dated one of my best friends for three weeks so that I got to see you every day of it. You left me in _pieces_  Annabeth. Don't expect any favors from me."

Her face fell and I turned away, stomping back inside. Surprisingly, I felt good. I mean, really good. I'd wanted to say that to her for a long time, to make her understand what she did to me and know that after learning that she didn't trust me, we would never have a meaningful relationship ever again. Of course, there was that one tiny twinge of guilt when I saw her crushed face, but my gloating victory covered that up easy.

I just didn't expect that I'd be wrong.


	6. Chapter 6

"So how'd it go?" Nico asked.

"She said that she understood how badly she hurt me and wanted to make amends. I told her exactly how bad she'd hurt me and told her to shove it." I replied. I sat down on the couch and put my head into my hands. It'd been stupid to say what I did, but her presumption that she knew how bad the breakup had been for me just pissed me off. She'd been my first girlfriend and practically my only crush, minus a few celebrities I'd crushed on in like, fifth grade. That breakup and its circumstances had scarred me for life and I may not ever recover. Plus, the guys she'd been dating and how she'd been dating them proved to me that she'd changed entirely and I didn't want anything to do with that new Annabeth. But still, when I looked at her, I still saw that girl I'd fallen in love with caked and hidden under a mountain of makeup. My heart squeezed the wound opening back up.

The other four could see my self-pity-party and left me to it alone. They knew how nasty I could get when I was vulnerable. I sat there for a moment in an awkward silence, then decided to do something and got up. I had to update our Facebook page anyway. We needed roadies; we wanted a photographer/person to tape our practices, and maybe a few more instruments. There were 65 people following us and at least 10 them had to want a job of some sort. I sat on Facebook for another half an hour, doing what nobody else would and updating our status, updating our events, updating our page, updating our pictures, ect. But unfortunately Facebook was only a temporary fix for my guilt and I excused myself from dinner and chose to mope in my room.

I collapsed on my bed, sighing. I hated emotions sometimes. They were just so messy. Sometimes I wished that I could just drop my grudge or just not have it. It hurt to say her name still and that conversation had cut me deep.

"Percy?" Thalia's timid voice came through my door. "Are you hungry? There's some food left if you want it."

"Thanks Thalia, I'll be out in a minute." I called back. Just as I was getting up and going out there so I could get some food when my phone jingled. Kay, before you get all judgmental about me having a phone since I'm a demigod, know that these are special phones. Tom knew that since we were in a band, we'd need a way to communicate easily, so he pulled in a few favors from Hermes and ta-da: phones that  _don't_  send up our demigods scent flare thing. We have to keep it quiet though, because all the other demigods would get jealous (I sounded like a little kid right there).It enables us to use it like a regular cell-phone, it's just got a bit of godly magic in it that prevents the cell phone signal from telling the monsters where we are most of the time. Only the real big baddies like a hydra or a drakaina can usually decipher the smell and then they just decided to not come after us because A) we're usually accompanied by a Titan-ish thing (ahem- _Tom_ ), and B) the godly magic scares them off. So, yeah, it's okay for us 4 to have cells now.

I glanced at my screen. Fourteen notifications. Most of them were people on our page going 'hell yeah I'll be your roadie' or 'I'm majoring in photography if you need my mad skillz' and such. But there was one that didn't say that.

I read it and my eyes widened. Ho-ly-SHIT. I ran out and snagged one of their shoulders (a later glance revealed it to be Jordan) and showed them the message.

"So what, some nerd wants to be our roadie. Big deal." He said.

I shook my head impatiently. "I meant the notification beneath that one, moron." His brow furrowed and then shock covered his face.

"Ohmigawds, guys, get over here!" he said. Nico and Thalia got up and peeked at the screen. Shock covered their faces as they read what it said:

_Hey guys, this is Marc's uncle. I was at his birthday party and saw you guys perform. I happen to have a real eye for talent and think you have major potential as a succeeding band. Luckily for you, I also work at a major radio station and if you guys get me a demo CD, I can get you on the air._

Holy Shit.

Dude.

Wow.

I'm running out of words. Everybody knew that once you made it on a radio station and someone thought you were good enough to get you on there in the first place, you almost always hit it big, it was a 70-30 shot. Not good numbers to some people, but they were good enough for us. We quickly sent him all of our songs from iTunes and put them on a hardcopy disc. Tom took it and we knew that within a matter of seconds, our demo CD would be in his mailbox. It made me immensely happy and lifted my spirits immediately to know that by tomorrow morning or sometime after, we would be on the radio.


	7. Chapter 7

**Annabeth's POV**

I still couldn't believe how upset Percy had been. When I'd seen him two days ago, begging him to at least try to be friends with me, he'd been furious. I'd never seen him that mad in my life, not even during the Titan War, which was saying something. He had looked like he'd wanted to disembowel me with his teeth. I mean, I know I'd said some hurtful stuff to him, but I couldn't have been that mean, could I? Immediately, I answered my own question. It was in a Child of Athena's nature to act rudely towards a Child of Poseidon. I could be that mean and I probably had been.

Sighing, I leaned over and flicked on my radio, turning to a station that Marc's uncle worked at. They played fairly decent music and I liked listening to Marc's uncle's comments; he was really funny. I had only sat there for a moment before I heard him say "Alright gang, all kidding aside, here's a new band I found. After much debate at the station and many listening, we've decided to let you all be the judge. If you like this next song, call in or say something on Facebook to us. Be warned folks; we just probably found the next big thing. Alright, now here's "I Thought You Loved Me" by Aegis' Hatred."

I froze as music began to blare out of my speakers. Aegis' Hatred? Wasn't that the name of Percy's band? The one Haylie had gushed over and everybody else was following on Facebook? The one in the Talent show and the one at Marc's birthday party that had played that song that haunted my dreams? Yes, I decided when I heard the lead vocalist. It was. Jordan's voice was unmistakable, as was Thalia and Nico's soft background singing. The only thing that told me Percy was in this band was the steady tempo the song kept-like a heart that was gushing blood but couldn't heal itself. I listened, enchanted to the lyrics that was playing.

_"…you loved me.  
_ _You told me we'd be together forever  
_ _I'm begging you-  
_ _Give me another chance! (Give me another chance!)_

_I told the truth I didn't lie  
_ _I loved you more than life itself  
_ _Why would I hate you?  
_ _I didn't betray you._

_I left my heart back with you  
_ _But you tore it all to shreds  
_ _Twisted, burnt, pulled, and hurt  
_ _Then left me to rot in my own world._

_Please, tell me you love me  
_ _Tell me you still care  
_ _Tell me that when I need you-  
_ _You'll still be there! (You'll still be there!)_

_I'm floating all alone  
_ _I'm lost out at sea  
_ _I can't bring myself to heal,  
_ _Can't bring myself to heal_

_I thought you loved me,  
_ _You told me we'd be together forever  
_ _I'm begging you-  
_ _Give me another chance! (Give me another chance!)_

_**(cue short solo)** _

_You know what, never mind  
_ _It took all this pain to realize I'm just fine  
_ _I'll be fine from now on  
_ _I'll be my own man_   


_I don't need you anymore  
_ _I don't need your score  
_ _I'll do it all my myself  
_ _I don't need any help! (I don't need any help!)_   


_I'm so sick of you  
_ _Telling me what to do  
_ _Like I don't know  
_ _I guess I'll go (I guess I'll go!)_

_I'm so sick of you  
_ _Telling me I'm dumb  
_ _Left just to hum  
_ _Like I needed you! (Like I needed you!)_

_I thought you loved me,  
_ _You told me we'd be together forever  
_ _I'm begging you-  
_ _Give me another chance!(Give me another chance!)_

_I'll be just fine  
_ _You don't know me  
_ _I'll be just fine  
_ _You don't know where I'll be_

_And that's just fine by me!"_

I was frozen in place. I knew exactly who'd written those lyrics. It seemed all of their songs were written by him. I'd hurt him so much that he'd never forgive me. I couldn't breathe, it felt like my chest was cinched way too tight and I couldn't draw air into my body. Gods, I missed him so much. Whenever I hugged Marc, I knew, I just knew it was wrong. He acted like he loved me, but the truth was, we didn't fit together. Hugging him wasn't like hugging Percy. When I hugged Marc, it was an empty movement made out of a reflex. When I hugged Percy, it had real emotion in it and he was doing it for a reason, whether it was just to soothe me or just to show he loved me. I didn't fit with Marc. I'd been fitted for one man and one man only. Sadly, that man now hated me.

 _Gods, what did I do?_ I thought, tears leaking out of my eyes


	8. Chapter 8

**Back to Percy's POV**

So, we heard our song on the radio. I was a little amused that they'd picked "I Thought You Loved Me", but I wasn't picky. A song on the radio was still a song on the radio, no matter which one it was. He'd even been kind enough to mention that we were still seeking representation, so all the potential agents could track us down.

"Hey Percy!" Jordan called, his voice slightly disturbed. "How many followers did we have two days ago?"

"Round about 60." I replied. I couldn't remember the exact number, but I knew it had started with a 6. "Why?"

"Because now we have 142." Jordan replied. I snorted and got up, thinking he was exaggerating. He wasn't. Our followers had boomed. It'd taken us almost 3 months to get 65 followers and in 2 nights, we'd gotten around 70 or 80. That's what you call popularity.

"Whoa." I muttered, checking out all of the new comments on the page. They were all like 'I loved that song on the radio' and 'Who was that about, cuz it had to be about someone!' and 'OMG you have to write more!' and 'Get your music on this page so I can save it to my comp instead of buying it on iTunes' and stuff like that. It was endearing to see all of those new comments and new followers. It proved that, unlike what so much of the camp thought, we could make it. Even if we were just one-hit-wonders, we could sell music.

"Jesus Christ, that's about…" Thalia trailed off and did some mental math. "About 77 followers in two nights. And Marc's uncle promised he'd play more of our songs. Can you imagine how many fans we're gonna have within a week?"

"It'll probably number in the thousands." Nico commented off to the side, drying his hair from his recent shower (another reason I liked Nico better than Hades-A) he didn't want to kill me and B) he showered often).

"Probably." I murmured. A little red notification flag went up in the upper corner, notifying me that I had a new message. Interested, I clicked it and saw it was from Annabeth. Moodily, I went to exit, but Jordan stole the mouse back from me and opened it.

"You guys need to get over your little feud." He said. "Now read it or I'll read it out loud for everybody and their brother to hear." He'd do it. I wouldn't doubt that. He'd done it to Nico and most of his siblings. If there was one thing Jordan was good at, it was threats and reconciliation. The two went nicely together.

I re-opened it and read it.  _Hey_ , it said,  _I know we didn't have the nicest last words a coupla days ago, but I really need to talk to you. And this time it is a matter of life and death. Call me, XO._

Oh, so now it was a matter of life and death? What 'matter of life and death' couldn't she handle? She'd been in an effing war with me and had had my back the entire time. She'd charged a Titan. She'd been kidnapped by a Titan. What on earth was going on that she couldn't handle and desperately needed my help for?

"So, you gonna call her?" Nico asked, reading it over my shoulder. I glared at him. He knew I hated it when he creeped on my Facebook stuff. It made me feel like someone was stalking me. Him in specific, but Thalia and Jordan did it too.

"Depends on the situation. What on earth does she need my help for so badly?" I replied, exiting out of the message without replying. "She's a daughter of Athena and the camps best knife-fighter."

"Maybe it's really serious. You should call her Percy." Thalia pressed.

I looked at them all. "Will the ganging up on me never end?"

Jordan glanced at the other two, who shook their heads, and then shook his own. "No, not really. Not until you and Annabeth can have a civil conversation."

I groaned. I'd better get used to them ganging up on me I guess. This 'reconciliation' could take a while. And you knew it was bad when the Son of Hades (who was a cold, heartless, and emotionless bastard) and the Daughter of Zeus (who was my natural-born enemy) sided with a Son of Apollo on matters that dealed with romance. That's when you knew it was just sad (in a bad way) and everything had gone to hell in a handbasket.

Nico handed me a phone with Annabeth's number already dialed. The look on all of their faces made it clear that I was going to call her and speak to her before they left me alone. I made a face at him and snatched the phone away, hitting send. I waited as it rang and then eventually went to her voicemail. I hung up and handed the phone back to him, saying "Voicemail."

"You don't want to leave a message?" Thalia asked.

"Nope." I replied, my lips popping on the  _P_. "I don't want to leave a message."

"Percy, this could be important." Nico stressed. "Just call back. Maybe she'll pick up this time and if she doesn't, leave a message."

I made another face at him before snatching the phone away a second time and dialing her number. I waited once more until I got her voicemail again. I waited until the beep and then said "Hey Annabeth, its Percy. I got your message. Call me back at 741-843-7618, kay? Bye." and hung up again. I gave them all dirty looks before throwing the phone at them all again and leaving the room. I didn't get far. Not even 2 minutes later, she apparently called back and was repeatedly asking for me, while in tears.

"Hello?" I asked, trying to keep my attitude from biting into my voice.

"Percy?" she sniveled. "It's Annabeth."

"Yeah, I kinda got that. What do you need?" I pressed.

"I-I can't-You'll never believe me."

"Dammit Annabeth, just spit it out already. What happened?" I demanded.

"I really need to talk to you." She cried. In the background I could hear Marc's voice, saying "Annabeth, baby, you don't need to talk to Percy. I'm here. Just tell me what's wrong and I'll fix it." Then I heard her snap "Get off me!" and then ask "Can you pick me up at Marc's house? Please?"

"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on? Trouble with family? School? Friends? What? Monsters find you and totally destroy your life?" Little info needed Wise Girl." Her old nickname slipped unbidden from my lips and then I heard her breath catch. Finally, she seemed to get up enough nerve to reply.

"Chiron's missing and no one knows what to do. It was suggested that I call all of the senior counselors in and we have a meeting. Even Rachel's coming from her house." She said. Now my breath caught and I was having a little trouble breathing.

"Chiron's missing?" I breathed, my vision going fuzzy.

"Mhmm." She said and then proceeded to bawl into the phone.

"I'm on my way. I whispered. I hung up and then yelled, "Pack your shit up, we're going to camp!"

"Why?" Thalia asked, peeking her head in my door.

"Chiron's missing. Annabeth's calling in all senior counselors." I replied. Her face paled, then she went to go tell the boys.


	9. Chapter 9

I pulled up in front of Marc's house and then booted Jordan into the back with Nico and Thalia. He wasn't too happy about it, but he knew that Annabeth would be getting shotgun and to him, that made it worth it. I climbed out of the car and jogged up to Marc's front door. Marc was waiting for me.

"Hey, listen, Percy," he said gently, as if trying to break the news that my dog had died, "You can go home. I've got this under control. She was just weak, she's just fine now."

"Oh, I highly doubt that. Do you know who Chiron is?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"Do you know what he means to either of us?"

He shook his head.

"Do you know what he means to almost 400 people who attend our summer camp?"

He shook his head.

"Then you don't have this under control. You may have gotten her to stop crying, but you sure as Hades do not have this under control." I said, slipping up and using a demigod curse. Marc wrinkled his brow.

"Hades? What the fuck does that mean?" he asked. I sighed, almost cursed again, then took a deep breath.

"Nevermind my weird curses. Just let me see her so I can get a handle on the situation. Annabeth called me in tears Marc. If you know Annabeth at all, you should know she never cries. I've seen her break her arm without making a sound Marc. This is serious. I've got to see her." I replied patiently.

"No," he insisted. "She'll be just fine. Now you can go. I'm her boyfriend now Percy, I can handle this."

I laughed darkly. "You don't know her at all Marc. Not at all. Move the fuck out of my way."

"No." he said stubbornly. "You've hurt her enough. She doesn't need to see you when she's this fragile."

_Oh, bad move Marc._

"Maybe I wasn't clear enough for you. Clean the shit out of your ears and listen good this time." I snarled. "Move the fuck out of my way before I kick your ass to next week."

"You wanna go?" he challenged me. "One on one, name the time and place."

"I would, but I've got to move  _my girlfriend_  to a camp, where she can stay with her siblings and get herself under control, where she will then have to assist me in getting almost 400 other people out of hysterics. She's not the only one who's freaking out over this Marc- I almost stopped fucking breathing. Let me see Annabeth. Now."

"Perseus Jackson, you leave her the fuck alone!" he yelled.

"Well, I've got news for you Marcus Jacob Dennis," I yelled back, "I won't. I'll always be apart of her life and always be there for her, whether we like it or not. Now come hell or high-water, she's coming with me. Move out of my way. I don't want to have to hurt you Marc."

He made a move for me and I reacted instinctively. He reached for my arm and I caught his hand and twisted it. I threw him off his own porch and kicked the door open. Annabeth was sitting on the couch surrounded by maybe 7 people. I reached for her and was met with a calamity of objections, but they all came to a dead halt when she took my hand and crushed herself to me. She wasn't in tears anymore, but you could see her panicking hysteria right beneath the false bravado of confidence. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and took her to the car. Marc climbed out of the bushes and snagged her arm. She ripped it out of his hand and turned back to me. I put her in the car and went around, climbing in and starting the car. Marc's stunned and betrayed face cheered me a little as we drove away.

"Annabeth!" Thalia cried, hugging her from behind the seat. "Honey, what happened?"

"I don't know." She sniveled, tears threatening again. "I was just hanging out with some friends at Marc's house and then I got a phone call from Connor and Travis. The entire camp was in uproar and no one could find Chiron. They'd been searching for hours and there was no sign of him. They called Rachel and she apparently issued a prophecy via phone and no one knows that it means. All they know is that Chiron's gone." And then she burst into tears.

"Percy?" Nico asked. "How fast can you"-

"Pretty damned fast." I replied cutting him off. I gunned it and the car topped out at 97 mph. The drive that normally took about a half an hour to an hour only took us 15 minutes. We climbed out of the car and were met with a rush of people.

"What's happening?"

"What's going on?"

"Where's Chiron?"

"Why are the senior counselors back? It's not summer!"

"Alright, everybody hush!" Thalia commanded. She added a bit of  _oomph_  to her words by summoning a bit of thunder and everybody fell silent. "We don't know anything either. We're calling a senior counselor meeting in the Big House in five. Grab your seconds and be there." There was a murmur from the crowd, but they nevertheless dispersed and I heard whispers of "The Big Three are here." and "This has got to be bad."

Well, they weren't wrong.

I passed Annabeth off to Malcolm and then went to go find my own second. Nico was usually my second, but from the way Nico and Thalia were eyeing each other, I sensed that was about to change. Since Jordan wasn't a head counselor, I snagged him and dragged him to the Big House.

The meeting commenced early, because everybody arrived in record time, even Rachel and she was coming from Clarions. Thalia, Nico, Annabeth and I headed the meeting, since the camp director and activities directors were seemingly MIA. Annabeth seemed to be at a loss for words and I nudged her.

"Chiron's gone." She blurted. Fancy words you got there Wise Girl. She blushed and stuttered "Well, you guys probably already know that but just in case you didn't, well, um," She looked at me.

I cleared my throat. "What Annabeth's trying to say is that yes, Chiron's gone, but by no means does that make us vulnerable. You still have brains and wit, force, and the means to protect this camp. And we will protect this camp." I finished determinedly. Thalia shot me a smile and I nodded slightly in her direction.

"We were told," she said loudly, "that Rachel issued a prophecy from over the phone. Can anyone justify this or remember it?"

"I can." Travis timidly raised his hand. "I was the one who called her."

"What was it?" Nico demanded, his gaze not only piercing, but slightly intimidating.

Travis cleared his throat as I had. "I think it went:  _The one of old is gone/He will not be found by the superiors/Left to direct on their lonesome/Five will answer the call/Four will go to the Flame/Three will bring him home._ "

"Interesting." I mused, "It's not like the other prophecies. They usually rhyme and have about 6 lines. This one has five and has no repetition in it, at least not obviously. Annabeth?"

She flinched when I said her name. "You're right. There's no obvious repetition and it is off. It's obviously issuing a quest."

"Who's gonna go?" Travis asked.

"That depends on who it was issued to and who it speaks of in the lines." Thalia replied. "She spoke to you on the phone and something you said must have triggered the Spirit of Delphi. But it is also a group decision and you have the right to refuse the quest and pass it along to someone else."

"It said ' _He will not be found by the superiors'_. That means the gods won't find him, will they?" Madelyn from the Demeter cabin spoke up from next to Katie.

"Not necessarily. With Chiron gone, the responsibility to the camps welfare falls on the senior counselors. That means that most likely no one in this room besides Travis will be going to find Chiron." Nico contradicted her. "Though you are correct, that is a possible meaning to that particular line." Madelyn sat up a little straighter and Thalia glared at Nico. Jeez, territorial much?

"That all depends on if Travis even wants to do the quest you guys." I contradicted everyone else. "If whatever took Chiron was even strong enough to do that, why would anybody else wanna go? I'll be the first to admit it- if I was being issued this quest, I'd hesitate."

"The prophecy wasn't for Travis." Rachel said loudly. Travis looked relieved.

"Then who?" Annabeth asked, recovering her cool.

"That prophecy was made for the entire camp, to tell them what happened to Chiron. Well, it told them-he's been taken by something. It said that 5 campers would go on a quest, but not which 5." Rachel said.

"I thought you couldn't decipher your prophecies?" asked Will Solace from the Apollo cabin.

"I usually can't but when you were all talking about giving it to Travis, it just felt wrong. And any rational person can see the rest." She explained calmly. "No offense Travis."

"None taken." He said faintly.

"So who's gonna get the quest?" asked Aaron from the Hephaestus cabin.

"That's a camp decision." Thalia replied. "The lines say that ones of superior power will not find him. It's up to the camp to decide if they want the senior counselors to go away and look or leave that to the rest of you and leave the senior counselors to ' _direct on their lonesome'_."

Annabeth took a big breath, then said "I think the senior counselors should go."

"Let's call a camp meeting in the mess hall before any major decisions are made. Remember, if 5 of the senior counselors go away, the new campers are left under the direction of eight senior campers and have instability on their hands." Nico countered calmly. Since he'd heard petitions of the dead and had made many decisions similar to this (only his were you know-more permanent), everybody nodded and we all walked to the pavilion. As if waiting for when we'd call a camp meeting, everyone was sitting at their tables. We all walked up to the Head Table and stood there.

"The prophecy was not issued to anyone in particular." Thalia said loudly. She repeated the lines for everyone to hear and then said "That means, the quest is up for grabs. But first we have to decide what the lines mean. All in favor of senior campers staying here?" Dozens of hands rose. "All in favor of the senior counselors going and searching for Chiron?" Dozens of hands rose.

"Annabeth?" Nico asked.

"The vote was in favor of the senior campers going and searching." She said quietly. "Nominations?"

"The Big Three!" Was the first thing shouted out.

_Ah, hell._


	10. Chapter 10

"Other nominations?" I asked calmly, even though on the inside, I was freaking panicking.

"What about the senior counselors? Don't they get a choice?" demanded Katie Gardener.

"Very well." Nico said. "What are the senior counselor's votes?" We held another quick poll very quick. And none of the senior campers wanted to go, therefore the scales tipped tremendously in favor of none of the senior campers going. Although the campers who'd voted for us to go were disappointed, that didn't stop many of them from volunteering to go on the quest themselves.

"All volunteers please approach the Oracle and see if you are the one nominated to go on the quest." Annabeth called out. A number of campers stood and shuffled into a sad excuse for a line and stood in front of Rachel. Slowly, one by one, she dispersed them all. Whenever she was asked a question that would normally trigger the Spirit of Delphi, she sadly shook her head and they went and returned to their seats. When there were no more volunteers, Rachel turned to us.

"Unless some senior campers are gonna start volunteering, I don't think that anybody here is going to be getting a quest anytime soon. The Spirit of Delphi is rejecting all options. I know there's going to be a quest, I can feel it. But the right person hasn't asked yet." She said, hesitant.

Without dropping a beat, I demanded "What is my destiny?"

_"The Son of the Sea leads five_

_He goes to find the secret hive_

_Under the falsest of pretenses_

_He risks all his chances_

_The hoofed one returns with rain_

_And water has all that is to gain."_

The prophecy spewed out of Rachel like it'd just been waiting at the bay. I could tell it had, because that had been at like the drop of a hat, no warning, no nothing. The Spirit of Delphi had chosen me for this quest and it apparently wasn't making exceptions, for it usually didn't care who got the quest, just as long as there was a prophecy given.

I blinked, rooted to the spot. I hadn't really intended to get a quest, especially this close to exams, the end of the year, and the band was thinking about doing a tour to promote ourselves. This was  _really_  inopportune. But then again, the Spirit of Delphi was known for that.

"Who will you choose to go with you?" Annabeth asked.

"Nico, Thalia, and Jordan, no doubt." I replied without dropping a beat. I wasn't going anywhere without my band, bullies, support group, and potential matchmakers/therapist.

"That's only four." Nico objected. "We need one more person."

There was a sudden clamoring of people yelling "I'll go!" or "Pick me!" I didn't look at any of them. I just turned to look at the blonde haired girl next to me expectantly. She nodded her head in slight acknowledgement.

"I'll go." Annabeth said softly. I could feel the Cheshire smiles of my band, but I ignored them. I had some serious preparations to be making if we were going on a quest. See, Thalia and Jordan had it easy. They lived at camp, went year-round, and only ventured into town for our band practices and sometimes the occasional show or to stay in our loft. Nico, however, lived with me as my adopted brother and went to Goode High with me. We had exams coming up, we couldn't just leave. Not to mention our mom (well, my mom, his technical foster parent) would want to know, we'd have to tell Tom, and Annabeth would have to deal with Marc.

"We leave in a few days." I announced.

"Shouldn't you leave as soon as possible?" contradicted a person from the crowd. I shrugged.

"Some of us have arrangements to make that will take a while. Although I know demigods normally get kicked out of school for being trouble-makers and normally don't live with their mortal parent, I don't want to get kicked out of school this close to graduation and I don't really want any Truancy officers or CPS agents knocking on my moms door. Nico and I have things to do." I replied. I lazily tossed the keys to the Prius up into the air and caught them again before looking at Annabeth. "We should probably go before your boyfriend ends up killing me."

She nodded soberly. "Marc gonna be pissed." Although I hated to see her in such a fragile state, the moment where I was needed had passed and now I was just another demigod, though perhaps not as hated as before, so trying to be 'gentle' or 'nice' in anyway was only going to result in my ass getting kicked. I generally prefer my ass be left un-kicked, so I left it at that and went to my car.

Jordan was riding shotgun now, because Annabeth wanted to speak to Thalia, and Nico was  _not_  going to let Jordan the Son of Apollo 'playa' be riding next to his girlfriend for more than an hour. That would only lead to an inter-family/inter-car mosh pit and the car was  _way_  too small for that to be happening. So yeah, I got to ride the entire way while Annabeth talked about Marc. Like Thalia said, this was some kind of sick way to torture myself. Oh well, every body has to deal with the cards they've been dealt, even if mine were a little more sour than everyone else's.

"..nice, but a bit possessive, ya know?" Annabeth was saying.

"Kinda. Nico is technically my first boyfriend and he isn't all that possessive of me too much, but I can understand." Thalia replied. I snorted. No Thalia, not jealous at all. He only hates it when another guy so much as looks at you and opted to ride bitch for an hour so Jordan didn't sit next to you.

"You and Nico are dating?" Annabeth asked, amazed. "Since when?"

"Only a little while, not very long. I'd say maybe a week, week and a half." Thalia replied. "Oh, Annabeth, you should've seen it. He was so cute when he finally manned up and asked me. He was blushing redder than a tomato and could barely stutter out a sentence!" They both giggled and I could see Nico sitting moodily in the back, two red embarrassed blotches on his cheeks. I bet he was regretting sitting with the girls now. I mean, at least Jordan could gossip. Nico just sat there like a bump on a log and didn't say anything.

After what seemed like eternity (it really seemed that long when your ex was sitting behind you gossiping with your bassist about their love lives), we pulled up in front of Marc's house (at Annabeth's request) and let her out. She bid everyone goodbye, even me, and then sobered up, facing the house. You could see Marc sulking from behind the curtains. Oh, she was gonna have fun. She knelt next to my window.

"When are we leaving?" she whispered.

"Day and a half, max. We're taking our exams tomorrow and then fixing everything up when we get home. We'll be on the road soon." I replied. She nodded, and then unexpectedly gave me a swift, friendly kiss on the cheek.

"See you then Seaweed Brain." She whispered, and then went up and in the door. I shook myself and pulled away, going home.


End file.
